Ridley Scott hints at Ripley and Xenomorph connections in Alien: Paradise Lost
Yesterday, Ridley Scott made waves by announcing that his sequel to 2012’s Prometheus would be titled Alien: Paradise Lost, effectively tying his next directorial outing far closer to his original 1979 Alien than he’d previously let on. Now he’s clarified even more details to Empire, dropping hints about the prequel/sequel’s connections to Ellen Ripley, the original Xenomorph and Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5!
“In a way it is ‘Prometheus 2,’ it’s exactly the same story,” Scott confirmed. “But it was always in the works to be called that [‘Alien: Paradise Lost’]. Is ‘Prometheus’ actually taking us off course from where I’m going, which is actually backing into the first ‘Alien’… I’ve even got connections with Ripley, but I’m not telling you what.”
Despite publicly frowning on the idea of using the seemingly played out H.R. Giger designs from the original Alien, Scott now seems to be changing his tune, hinting that we will see the iconic face-hugging beastie in all its glory in his new film.
“I think I have to go again,” he said of re-approaching the Xenomorph. “We will see who made it, and why. That’s what’s interesting.”
Hopefully we will learn why the Engineers were responsible for the conception of human life on Earth and why they would then create bioweapons (the Xenomorphs) with the aim to wipe that life out. When last we saw Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and David (Michael Fassbender), they were piloting a ship to the engineer home world dubbed “Paradise.” Scott confirmed that “Paradise” was the original working title of Prometheus 2, and as it turns out, the title resonates (beyond the John Milton poem “Paradise Lost”) all the way back to the director’s original sequel ideas that predate even James Cameron’s Aliens.
“Years ago, I kept mulling over what ‘Alien 2’ could be, I was fiddling around with some ideas,” said Scott. “I was always fascinated with why this thing [the xenomorph] would be made, by whom, and for what purpose? The planet it was on – and I was looking at the dark side of the moon – would be called Paradise. Paradise is a very ominous word…”
Finally, Scott laid to rest tiresome rumors that Alien: Paradise Lost is somehow getting in the way of Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5.
“I’m producing it,” he reiterated on his role in Blomkamp’s proper sequel. “The design is for it to go out next, after this. This will go out first. It’s more associated with Ripley, it’s a completely different angle, it’s more of a sequel. I’m coming in from the back end.”
Alien: Paradise Lost will go before cameras in February with Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender set to reprise their roles of Shaw and the android David, respectively. A 2017 release date is expected, with Blomkamp’s currently-untitled Alien sequel likely coming out the following year with Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn returning as Ripley and Hicks.
